Home Is Where The Dog Is

 

Today's blog is short on words and long on pictures. I struggled trying to come up with a name for the post, and as you can see, I went with "Home Is Where The Dog Is." 

 On the surface it may seem like this post is about redoing a room and how Wiley helped. In reality, it's about trying to heal sad hearts, and how Wiley helps. 

Through a set of truly unfortunate experiences no fault of their own, Amy (above, left) and April (above, right) have found themselves without a real place to call home. I taught April a few years ago and Amy this past year. April is a student at Bloomsburg University and Amy will be attending Temple. 

Wiley is thoroughly enjoying all the attention.

Although their situation is really not great, Chad, Wiley, and I have benefited by having Amy join our household for the past few weeks. April is here quite often as well, and it's been a really nice summer having these two lovely girls around. 

While Amy was away at her orientation this past Sun-Tues, Chad and I decided to completely redo our guest room from being just the room where we put a spare bed and all our junk into a space a person might enjoy calling their own.  We wanted to surprise Amy when she got back, which meant we had to work really quickly to get everything done. There was hideous wall-to-wall carpeting to be ripped up and paneling to be painted. Below are the before and after pictures.

 You can see the brown shag carpet on the left that was covering the beautiful original hardwood floors. The paneling was also very dull in color, and we replaced it with a buttery yellow. 

Since Wiley hates/is afraid of anything new or different, this redo drove him nuts. He was constantly under our feet, rubbing up against the paint, and just generally being a nuisance.

 In the first picture, he jumped on the box spring as soon as we removed the mattress to put a bed skirt on. In the second picture he knocked the old curtain off the wall and then laid on it. Finally, in picture three he is trying to get Chad to play with his ball while Chad is pulling carpet staples from the floor.

Eventually we had to call in our friend Luke for reinforcements, or we wouldn't have been able to finish in time to surprise Amy when she got here. Wiley was soooo mad when Luke came right in and got to work instead of fussing over him. He stood and/or sat behind Luke and barked or hit him with his paw the entire time.

Every time I tried to take photos he tried to insinuate himself into them. The only time I asked him to pose was with the girls. All the other pictures are ones he put himself in. Look at the pics below!  You can see him sneaking his head in to lay it on my leg while I'm snapping the shots.

I had a lot of fun redoing this room. It hasn't been touched since we moved in, and since Chad and I are hoping to adopt a baby sometime down the line we need it to look nice. Amy's presence has given us that extra motivation we were lacking, because we just want to see her get the happiness she deserves. 

I was able to keep the total cost of the redo under $100 including the paint. New curtains, a new comforter, a new bedskirt, and even decorative pillows were all purchased at Ollie's Bargain outlet. And in case you're wondering, yes, those are Harry Potter sheets under there. In the picture on the left you can see the blue swirls with little Golden Snitches on them.

Wiley checked them out as well as I was trying to make the bed and he refused to get off.

And just in case you thought he was a total slacker, he helped us paint too.

Don't worry. No paint actually got in his eyeball. But his eyebrows, whiskers, and tail were a mess.

So to review, we started with a very dreary room, which is no place for a girl who needs to be cheered up.

And by the time we finished we had a pretty little place to call home, dog included free of charge.

Wiley is a lover. He wants to be the center of attention all the time, and people cannot help but feed off his loving vibes. Can't you feel at least a little happiness coming off of them in the picture below?

This is a win-win situation. Or as Michael Scott would call it, a win-win-win. Amy wins, Wiley wins, April wins.

And we win too. Wiley will really miss these girls when they go to college,  but we will too. On the one hand, Wiley will enjoy getting his spare bed back. . . 

. . . on the other hand it could get a little too quiet around here.

I hope you enjoyed checking out my room remodel. I also hope the room change is indicative of a mood change in me, and an incentive to work on some happiness and fulfillment. Only time will tell.

All we can do is make the most of it now, and share our friendly guy with everyone who is in need of a little pick me up. It's cheap therapy with very few side effects. Mostly hair and slobber. 

Share your rescue success stories with us please! Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com.

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